The Reason
by 1stepback
Summary: This is where it all started.The REAL beginning. How the Phantom became what he is at the start of the book and movie. All the bad things that made the phantom angry and cruel.
1. Prelude

The Reason

This is a story about the Phantom of the Opera. If you didn't know that already then I think there is something wrong with you. But what you don't know is the reason why he was so cruel and evil most times in the movie and book. This is the story that wasn't told about the Phantom of the Opera. There is a real reason. That's exactly what I'm here to explain.

'-' means someone is thinking something

"-" is when someone is talking

Prelude

Normally the circus is a wonderful place to see many exciting and wonderful things. There are candies and caramel apples aplenty and more interesting animals then most people in Paris have ever seen. There are also amazing stunts like tight rope walkers and men who can lift a live tiger with one arm. And along the middle lane of the circus pavilion there are tents that shield mysterious things like "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World!" and "The Tallest Man in the World!". But there are also horrible things that happen at the circus. This is where a horrible story began. This is where my story really began.

"But Mommy! I want a caramel apple! Please?" 'Gosh my mother is so evil. This is the first time I've ever been to the circus. It's all so alive and joyous and all I really want right now is to look at the tigers in the animal exhibit and eat a yummy looking caramel apple! But nooooo, my dear old MOTHER won't buy me one little apple. Well she did take me to the circus in the first place... I guess I'll forgive her for now.' "For the last time, no Erik! I just fed you and I don't want you get to an upset stomach over a stupid apple covered in something that could choke you anyway!" Erik's mom was in her early 30's , with dark black hair and pretty blue eyes. Exactly like Erik. Everyone was always saying how much he look just like a young male version of his mother. Except there was just one difference that everyone seems to overlook. They never mentioned the red disfigured side of his face that neither his father or his mother had. He did not have a problem with it and thought it made him different then his mother which he thought was good because it is awfully tiring to be called a young male version of an older woman.

"Okay Mother I will stop asking now. Oo Oo Oo Mommy I wanna see the tigers!" "Hush Erik. We can go and see the tigers now. We just have to cross the entire span of this huge circus pavilion!" 'She seems a little bit angry or something doesn't she? Hopefully she'll get over it by the time we get across to the tigers.' "Okay since you have to see the tigers we must go through the middle lane and then to the right to the animal exhibits I suppose." "Yay, we're going!"

As his mother slowly walked through the circus' heart and soul, the center of all of it, the little boy followed holding her long skirt and pointing at every interesting thing he could see. "Mommy! I see acrobats! Look, I see a fire eater! Holy smokes! Do you think the sword is REALLY down his throat?" Erik's poor mom only nodded and kept on walking and tried to keep everyone from staring at her son so much. 'The poor boy doesn't really realize how different he is from them. How much he stands out. Or how much he frightens people just because of his face.' No, the boy didn't know or care. He was too busy fast walking to the animal exhibits that were slowly coming closer and closer.

When he got there he walked around all the rusty cages until he finally found the magnificent felines he had longed to see. In the small cage made of bars and steel there was a rather large male tiger with beautiful facial markings just laying there with his big pink tongue hanging out of it's mouth. 'Wow! I didn't know they got so big!' Curled up next to the male was a small female cub just stretched out as much as she could be in the small cage. It wasn't much and if her tail accidentally crept out of the cage some little boy just had to pull it which led to the cub getting very annoyed and angry. Eventually she had learned to pull her tail all the way up to her nose preventing anyone from touching it. This greatly amused the little eight year old boy. "Mommy, see the little tiger?" He giggled to himself and pointed at the cub. "Is her nose cold or something?" His mother once again only smiled and sighed to herself. 'It's not to late to stop the deal right now. Wait, wait, you've gone through this a million times. You can't loose your courage now.' After another few minutes of looking at the tigers yawn and stretch their useless claws in and out Erik's mother finally grabbed his hand and pulled him to a nearby tent and then walked around to the back of it where they were unable to be seen from the circus crowds. 'Yes I must get this over with. But I will miss him dearly.' Erik had gotten just a little bit worried by now. His mom had pulled him quite hard and fast behind a tent where no one could see them. 'Why is Mom looking so sad?' "Mommy, what's wrong? What are we doing here?" 'This may be harder on me then I thought' Erik's mother had sat down on the grass so she was eye level with her son. She started choking up a bit and had a tear silently rolling down her pale cheek. "Listen Erik, you know that I, l- love you, so much that I-I-I would do anything for you. So I'm gonna let you d-do what I think is b-b-be-best for you." By now she was silently sobbing with her hands on the little boys shoulders. The woman then cried out desperately, "Blake, Wesley, where are you?"

After those words two men, one tall and stony looking with short brown hair, closely cut and missing in some spaces and a shorter and smiling man with long blonde hair that went down to his ears, came walking out of the back of the tent that Erik and his mother had been standing behind. "We were just waiting for you to call us Lady," said the brown haired man with a curt nod of his large head. "Wesley, you could have let me know that you were in there you know!" At this Wesley just grinned and said, "But then we wouldn't be having this lovely conversation. You would have just told us to take him and then you would have run away crying. I know you too well." Erik's mother looked down at the ground guiltily and then chose to speak to the man with the long blonde hair. "Blake, I would like to introduce you to my son Erik." Blake looked down his large, obscenely large, nose down at the boy. "I'm very glad to finally meet you boy. Your mother has talked so much about you." Looking back at Erik's mother he said with a large grin, "He looks just like you said he would. Exactly like a younger male version of you..._with one slight difference of course."_ The last part was spoken under his breath while he looked back at Erik's face with a grin slowly forming on his.

All this time Erik had gotten more and more confused. 'What in the world are they talking about?' "Mommy, what are they talking about?" His mother, who had gotten off the ground when Blake and Wesley appeared, sank back to her knees again and took her son's hands in her own. She had wanted to explain everything to Erik but then she found she did not have the courage to tell her one and only son that she had traded him to a circus for enough money to keep her going for years. The truth was that her family had gradually gotten poorer and poorer until Erik's parents had run out of answers to their problems. Erik's mom knew that they could not provide for her son anymore so she thought she could convince the circus to take him along with them and maybe teach him to train the lion and tigers or something along those lines. They had agreed to take him from her and give her money for him. Now she just had to tell him all this... 'I lack the courage to say this to my one and only son. Pathetic am I.' She stood up again and walked over towards Wesley and Blake. "I am asking you as a friend to just take him and explain this all to him so I don't have to. I'm begging you! I cannot bear to say all of this to him." Blake and Wesley grinned at themselves and then at her and convinced her that they would indeed break the news to young Erik. With that lifted off her chest, Erik's mom went back to her son and said the last thing she ever said to him. "My dearest boy, my friends Blake and Wesley will explain everything to you. All you must know from me is that this was never your fault and I will always love you. Now stay will them and maybe I'll see you in a few years, famous and taming wild lions and tigers!"

With her small speech she got up and started walking away. "Wait Mommy!" But then Blake and Wesley picked Erik up and clapped their hands to his mouth to make sure her could not speak anymore. 'NOOOO! Mommy! Don't leave me!' His mother just walked away without a second look back. The last time Erik ever saw his mom he was crying and she was leaving him with two strange men who dragged him into the tent and threw him into a small rusty iron cage almost identical to the tiger's cage. The last time he was ever treated like a normal human being was when he saw his mother trade him for a sack of gold.

The first time he was ever laughed at by strangers with cruel faces and little hearts was that first time he was thrown into a cage and locked in. That was the first time, but not the last time. Oh no, never the last time.

(Note: This is the author of the horrible story you've just read. I just wanted to tell you that this is my first story so I would really like a review even if its just u telling me every single thing about this story that sucks and needs to be improved. Cause that's what im doing this for. To LEARN! And hopefully get just a few wee wittle compliments. Maybe? Please? O well. Thanks for reading.)

(Another note: just to let you know, this story starts out sad, becomes happy and then gets sad again. But I think it will all be meaningful. And to make up for all the sadness I'll make sure there's some fluff and a lot of happiness where I can fit it. Once again, thanks)


	2. The Circus Life

The Reason

Author note: Well thanks very much to the TWO people who game me small compliments! Even if I did ask for criticism I didn't think I would get these loooong reviews about reading all these books to improve my syntax and vocabulary and to learn how a Parisian speaks and acts. Okay so I realize I'm not very good at doing things OTHER then regular American talk and acts because I'm an American and that's what I'm good at. Well that's my excuse. Even if I keep on getting reviews telling me I'm a horrible writer and I'm too slangy and I'm informal and my stories should come with a head ache warning I don't care. I'm just doing this because I love reading and kinda hoped to be a writer one day. O well.

Maska: THANK YOU! If it weren't for you I would not have continued this story.

Notesinred: Thanks for trying to help me along I guess but just to let you know I have read "The Hunchback of Notre Dam", "The Three Musketeers", and I just finished "The Phantom of the Opera." I just suck at writing in a french setting with french people and french everything. I'm sorry if that makes my stories sucky but I'm just doing this because I want to.

Allegratree: Actually you gave me a small compliment in your review. You said if I was "a cognitively intact eighth grader then congratulations." Well I'm a "cognitively intact seventh grader" so thank you very much. I'm only 13 dam it!

SimplyElymas: maybe it doesn't make sense because I wrote it that way! evil laugh I was just thinking that maybe he didn't care about his face at his age 8 and wouldn't use a mask then. I'm modern, my stories sound modern, and all this is really sad.

The Circus Life

Poor little Erik was awoken with pain. A sharp poke in the side with a long stick. After having terrible nightmares about people laughing and poking him he woke up just to find that the nightmare was real.

"Wake up my little poodle! It's time for you to learn your daily duties here at Le' Paris Circus."

Erik sat up in the small confinment he'd been thrown in just last night. It was gross, smelly, and in one of the corners was a dark stain that looked unusually like blood. After taking in his surroundings Erik looked outside of the rusty cage and found himself staring into eyes filled with loathing and disgust.

"It is about time you woke up darling or i would have had to throw you in with the lion's cage. And he doesn't like intruders very much," said the man known as Wesley with an evil little grin on his acne filled face. "But now that you are awake we can get down to business. I dearly hope you like your new home, I picked it out especially for you. I did not want one too big just incase you had a fear of open spaces..." With that Wesley opened up his mouth and let out a loud sharp cackling sound that one could only assume was his version of laughter.

Erik was almost crying again just having to listen to this evil man. 'I don't wanna be here! Why is he treating me like this?'

"Excuse me, but why am I here?'' Erik said looking down at the bottom of his shoes and trying to sound as courteous as possible in his current state.

"You, my little pastry, are here because your mother could not put up with you anymore and sold you to the leader of this circus. So you see, this is all your fault and you have no one to blame but yourself.

"Noo! My mommy said she loved me! And that this wasn't my fault at all!" Erik refused to believe that his kind gentle mother would just leave him to the circus people just for money.

"Sorry to have to point this out to you but your mother was a lying bitch." The evil organism known as Blake emerged from a flap in the tent and looked at Erik with eyes over flowing with distaste. "She never really loved you. She pitied you. But she pitied herself even more because she had birthed you. The abomination that looked like her and yet was hideous and ugly, had come from her womb. She couldn't take the thought of living with the freak known as her son anymore. So now you belong to the circus. And you will belong to the circus until your spirit can no longer take the pain and you die a meaningless death."

Blake spoke with a slow somber tone which made Erik realize that this was no joke. His mother had left him with these men and would not be coming back. He would spend the rest of his life with this circus doing god knows what and then he would die and no one would care a bit. Self-despair settled over Erik like a dark shadow appearing once the sun has set.

"Well now that you've crushed the poor boy's mental health into a liquid goo can we please go eat?" Wesley had been patiently waiting for Blake's speech to end but was now hungry and ready to finally acquire some nourishment. "Come on Blake, I've had enough of torturing the brat. I'll give him some scraps later." Turning to Erik with a lofty gaze he silently spoke, "If I remember to of course..." After tormenting Erik for the last time Wesley and Blake left the tent and set out to find some food.

This left Erik all by himself in the cage again. Alone with all his new thoughts and feelings. He had lost all hope. These men, these awful men, had broken his spirit. He now believed that he had nothing left to live for. If he was going to be in this circus for the rest of his life he knew that it would not be a pleasent experience. He could tell just by the cage he had been thrown into that he would not be treated like a king. And just to add on to his misery he was treated like a bad dog by those two wicked men. Erik had no real idea how he had wronged his mother. Even so, because of his unknown mistake, he was here in this cage replaying his last moments with his mom over and over again in his mind. All except the words she had spoken. Since they were obviously lies. He sat in that cage for hours just sitting there and reliving memories. And that was how he spent his first full day behind the scenes of the circus.

(Author, sorry this chapter is a lot shorter then the other one way. and i'm sorry it's still horrible and i havent taken the help of the people who tried to help me. so it probably STILL sucks...! lol o well. if u dont like it then dont read it. but i do LOOOVE compliments. and very SMALL critisms. so please review)


	3. Meeting the Boss Man

The Reason

author note: ok. I know it's been a long time. A REALLY LONG time. and I don't have a reason or excuse. sorry. now on with the show!

Meeting the Boss Man

"Dear God, how can any one boy be so lazy?" Wesley was back. And he looked cranky. "This is a problem that we're going to have to fix. It will certainly not do. Not do at all!" Wesley opened up the cage and pulled out a little boy who had just awoken. Erik looked worn and tired even though the day had already started. He was trying to forget the nightmares he'd had all night. The ones about his mother. Leaving him here. Walking away into the crowd. Abandoning him for money.

"You had better wake up boy or you might go back to sleep while you're standing..." Wesley pulled Erik up so he was on his tip toes and looked him in the face. "That would be terrible wouldn't it? First you're up and next ya' know, you find yourself on the ground looking up at the sky." He dropped Erik, who fell to the ground, unable to support his weight quick enough. "Oops. Wittle Erik fall down go boom. Well get you're lazy ass up so we can get you started for work!" Wesley acted as if he had told a fabulous joke and started laughing wildly. "Hahaha! I can tell you this is going to be a wonderful day. You get to meet the boss, and then be introduced to you're adoring fans."

Erik had barely understood what Wesley said. He'd already given up on hope. Knowing that his mother had left him totally crushed his spirit, and now he was just a shell of a boy. But he knew that he'd better walk with Wesley before he was threatened with something painful. He trudged after Wesley out the back entrance of the red and yellow tent and followed him across a small grassy space and into a much bigger, brighter tent.

This had to be a very important person's tent. The ground was covered in intricately detailed Persian rugs, lavender filled the air, and the desks and tables in this tent were not simple and made for work. They were all a dark ebony wood, dragons wound their way around all the table legs, and, barely noticeable in the faint lantern light, golden wire had been laid into the edges of the wood into a dizzying swirl pattern. Everything gave off a safe, secure feeling, which Erik knew must be false. Finding a safe place in this hell would certainly be impossible. Right? Just as Erik was thinking about the probability of a safe haven in the circus, the thought was immediately incinerated.

A man had walked through the flap at the other side of the tent. Erik looked up to the man's face. He felt like crying right there. Just bursting into tears and banging his tiny fists into the ground. The man, he was so cold. He looked down at Erik and smirked. It was one of those smiles that makes you want to run away and cower in a dark corner. Erik almost did exactly like. He turned around and looked for the entrance he had used but before he could go anywhere Wesley had grabbed his arm firmly and turned him back around.

"Well that's no way to meet your new master. Say hi. Didn't your bitch mother teach you any manners?" Erik tried to say something, anything! But he could only manage a small whimper.

The man who had just entered the tent, sat down on an over stuffed seat cushion and motioned for the boy to sit in front of him. Scared to feel the man's wrath, Erik sat down where he pointed and looked down at the ground. He was too frightened to even look at the man.

"Well if you are mute then I guess I will do all the talking." Erik looked up into the man's pale face. "So, boy, I know Wesley and Blake have told you the reason you are at my circus. But you have yet to know what you will be doing as your job. I will not have you sitting around while I pay for your necessities." Erik almost felt a small burst of joy at those words. He thought maybe if he had work to do he could keep his mind off of his mother and the life he used to have. "What will I be doing, Sir?"

"Ahhh, so he does speak. Well boy, I'm in need of someone ugly." Erik became very confused. He was unaware that he was very ugly. He knew he wasn't a prince charming but he thought there must be boys uglier then he. Catching Erik's confused look the man said, "I do not mean normal ugliness. I mean deformed, oh my God what is that thing, ugliness." Erik was still confused. 'Why does he think I'm deformed?' Erik had grown up with no one pointing out his face and so he had never realized there was something different about him. His house had never had no mirrors. "But Sir, I still don't understand."

"Well it doesn't really matter. I don't care if you understand or not. I just thought you might like a head's up how people will treat you. But seeing as you are too stupid to comprehend anything maybe you should just start you're job and learn as you go. Don't scream too loud boy, wouldn't want people coming to the circus just to damage their ears." That last sentence had really bothered Erik. Why would he be screaming? And there was still the question about his deformed ugliness. Maybe the man had been right and he should just learn as he goes. What ever he had planned for Erik he would not learn what it was until it was later.

As he'd be thinking, Wesley had steered him away from the large tent and back into the small dirty tent his cage was in. Erik was suddenly frightened again. He did not want to go back in the cage. So dirty, and small. Erik looked up to Wesley with a pleading look on his face. His eyes held a silent question. "Yes you stupid little boy! Back into the cage. Or we'll start your work early!" Even though Erik didn't yet know what he was to be doing at the circus he knew that whatever could make Wesley grin like he had must not be good for him. So he crawled back into the rusty cage. Wesley placed a tiny plate filled with table scraps, like meat fat and dirty carrots, into the cage and locked it. Erik was starving so after briefly wondering if he would get sick from this, he grabbed the plate and ate all the disgusting scraps on it. Slightly less starving, but still miserable, he leaned up against the side of his cage and sat there. And drifted off into sleep filled with dreams of screaming.

thank you for reading. i appreciate.


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